Book of Mormon (Plain English Version)/1 Nephi/Chapter 15

by Timothy B. Wilson

Nephi explains Lehi's prophecies...
(compare 1 Nephi, chapter 15)

After returning from being carried away in the Spirit, I went back to my father's tent. There I found my brothers arguing over what my father had told them.

My father had said many things that could be understood only by asking the Lord for their meaning. But they, being proud, did not ask the Lord.

I became very sorry because of their stubbornness, and because of the vision I had just seen, in which I knew that my brothers and their descendants would falter because of their unbelief and wickedness. I was overcome with grief, feeling it was greater than anyone's, for I had seen the destruction of my fair people!

After praying to the Lord I received strength, and I asked my brothers what they were arguing about.

They said, "We don't agree on what father meant when he spoke of the natural branches of the olive tree, and of the Gentiles."

I asked them, "Have you asked the Lord to tell you their meaning?"

"No," they replied. "The Lord doesn't tell us such things."

Then I said, "Why don't you keep the Lord's commandments? Why will you allow yourselves to spiritually die because of your hard hearts? Remember, the Lord said,

‘If you will humble yourselves before me and not harden your hearts, but ask of me in faith, believing that you will receive, and diligently keep my commandments, then these things will surely be made known to you.’

By the same Spirit of the Lord which was in our forefathers, I tell you that the house of Israel was compared to an olive tree. Our family is of the house of Israel, for our father discovered that we are descendants of Joseph.

We are like a natural branch, broken off an olive tree, to be planted in the promised land.

The joining again of the natural branch to the olive tree is compared to our people who will receive the fullness of the gospel in the last days. They will receive it from the Gentiles (Latter-day Saints) many generations after the Messiah will have shown Himself to their forefathers, and many generations after they have faltered in unbelief.

In the last days, the rest of our descendants will know they are members of the house of Israel -- the Lord's covenant people. They will learn of their forefathers, and of their Redeemer's gospel, which He gave to their forefathers.

They will also know how to come to their Redeemer and be saved.

In the last days, they will rejoice and give praise to their everlasting God -- their rock and salvation. They will receive strength and nourishment from the natural tree again —- the true vine, and come into God's true fold.

The Lord will remember them again as members of the house of Israel, and graft them back into their mother tree as natural branches.

Our father means that after the natural branches are scattered by the Gentiles, they will be grafted back in, or in other words, receive the gospel, also by the Gentiles.

The Lord will show His power and give His gospel to the Gentiles because the Jews, or the house of Israel, will have rejected the Lord.

Our father not only spoke of our descendants, but also of the descendants of all the house of Israel, bringing to our attention the covenant that will be fulfilled in the last days, which the Lord made to father Abraham saying,

’Through your descendants, all families throughout the earth will be blessed.'"

Note: Speaking to the Nephites in 34 A.D., the Savior supported Nephi's then 600 year old statements about Isaiah and the covenant, saying,

"Ye remember that I spake unto you, and said that when the words of Isaiah should be fulfilled—behold they are written, ye have them before you, therefore search them—

And verily, verily, I say unto you, that when they shall be fulfilled, then is the fulfilling of the covenant which the Father hath made unto his people, O house of Israel.

And behold, ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of the house of Israel; and ye are of the covenant which the Father made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed (3 Nephi 20:11-12, 25).”

Iexplained many of these things to my brothers -- about the Jews being restored to the lands of their inheritance in the last days.

Then I repeated the words of Isaiah, who wrote about the restoration of the Jews and of all the house of Israel. I told them that at that time, the house of Israel would no longer be scattered and confused.

After I explained these things, my brothers were pacified for awhile and they humbled themselves before the Lord.

Later they asked me what the tree meant that our father saw in his dream.

I told them it represented the tree of life.

Then they asked what the iron rod meant. I said it represented God's word, and that those who held onto it never perished, nor could the devil's temptations overpower and blind them, leading them away from the straight path to the destruction of their souls.

I pled with them to listen to this warning from God. I encouraged them with all the energy of my soul, and with all the words of my mind, to obey God's word in all things.

Then they asked what the river meant. I explained that it came from a fountain of filthy water, which represents the devil's temptations.

The depths of the fountain represent the depths of hell.

The river was an awful gulf that separated the wicked from the tree of life, and from God's saints who were eating its fruit.

I told them the gulf represents the awful hell prepared by the devil for the wicked.

I told them our father saw God's justice, which also divided the wicked from the righteous. This justice was as bright as a flaming fire, ascending to God forever.

Then they asked me if that fire represented the torment of the body -- God's justice in this life, or the final state of the soul after death.

I told them the fire represents both temporal and spiritual torment -- that the day will come when all will be judged according to the works they did while in their physical bodies--that if they were to die while they were still wicked, they would be cast off from spiritual things having to do with righteousness.

I told them they will stand before God, who will judge their works, and if their works in the body were filthy in the days of their probation, then they are still filthy out of the body, and therefore cannot live with God. For if they were to live with Him, they would make His kingdom filthy.

God's kingdom will not be made filthy, and no unclean thing can enter it, so there is another kingdom prepared for those who are filthy.

That other kingdom, which is an awful hell, is prepared by the devil.

According to the justice of God's word, the final state of all souls is to live with Him or be cast out of His presence.

I told my brothers this is how the wicked are divided from the righteous, and from the tree of life, the fruit of which is most precious and desirable above all other fruit.

This fruit -- God's love -- is His greatest gift.